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We previously informed you that the award-winning 2005 French thriller 13 Tzameti (trailer above) was getting an American remake courtesy of original writer/director Géla Babluani, simply titled 13 and starring Control lead Sam Riley. Now a few other names have joined the cast, those being Mickey Rourke (Stormbreaker), Jason Statham (Death Race) and rapper 50 Cent (Righteous Kill). The general consensus seems to be that Statham and Rourke is the greatest combination ever, what do you think?

Filmmaker Paul W.S. Anderson (Death Race), aka the “mastermind” behind the Resident Evil movie franchise (he only directed the first one, but wrote and produced all three installments) has recently stated he will soon start tackling the unavoidable next sequel, saying thet he’s writing “an adaptation of the Long Good Friday right now, set in present-day Miami. Then I will probably write Resident Evil 4.”

Each film in the franchise ends with a tease to the sequel, so judging from Resident Evil: Extinction you can expect the film to take place at least partly in Tokyo, Japan. Aside from the rather poor writing (especially for the second movie’s ending), my main beef with these movies is how much they stray from their video game source, both in tone and storywise (much like most video game adaptations).

Heck the films feel more like video games than the games themselves. Then again, Extinction is the flick that has the least in common with the games, becoming some sort of Mad Max with zombies, and ended up arguably being the franchise’s best film and a great return to form for Highlander director Russell Mulcahy. Yet one can argue that this is because the previous two entries had so little to do with the games that what they did have in common was more distracting than anything else.

So while Resident Evil 4 may prove to turn into an entertaining action movie, I’d still like to see a Resident Evil movie done right. Sure there’s that new CGI movie but that one simply expands on the games’ storyline, instead of retelling it. The Anderson series needs to be concluded in a final installment, enabling a more respectful filmmaker to reboot the franchise in my opinion.

Four movies opened wide in the US last Friday, and all four of them went on to make decent money during the oh-so-critical weekend, ending a seven-week long box-office slump. Burn After Reading, the latest from the acclaimed Coen brothers Ethan and Joel (No Country For Old Men) took the top spot, followed by The Family That Preys, the latest from the incredibly prolific and popular Tyler Perry (Meet The Browns) who apparently made his best film yet…why don’t his films get released overseas? Finishing up the top 5 are the thriller Righteous Kill, the chick flick The Women and the apparently actually good The House Bunny, which is holding up very well in its fourth week of release. Last week’s number one however, Bangkok Dangerous, tumbled down to eighth place.

With X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the X-Men prequel, to be released by next May, and X-Men Origins: Magneto (another prequel) to follow soon after, 20th Century-Fox have decided they have a gold mine and are planning at least two more spinoffs: a “Young X-Men” movie (Generation X?) and a film focusing on the high-tech mercenary Deadpool, whom Ryan Reynolds (Definitely, Maybe) plays in Wolverine. I say go for it, as long as you keep the films consistent with one another.

Additionally, Fox is considering a reboot of the Daredevil franchise, which spawned a 2003 film starring Ben Affleck (Hollywoodland) as the titular hero and the 2005 spinoff clunker Elektra, and wall I can say is why? Why can’t we simply have a Daredevil 2? The first film isn’t anywhere near the failure most people seem to think it is. Exceeding its budget by 100 million dollars worldwide, it was well received by many, and even some people who hated it loved the director’s cut which adds 30 minutes to the film, including an entire subplot. Hell, I even know quite a few people who prefer it to Spider-Man! Why must there be a reboot? Blame Christopher Nolan. Not long ago, Jason Statham (Death Race) expressed interest in taking the role, with long time Daredevil writer Frank Miller’s support. I like Jason, but that’s just a bad choice.